man vs nature

Is it a natural resource or a man made resource? This was a question we covered recently in one of our homeschooling study units. The topic had me wondering about the intersection of man and nature that we often see on walks. It can be so beautiful to witness the initial, or primary, interaction, before it moves on to something unrecognizable as one or the other. Generally it is man manipulating nature, though we have had more and more of the opposite in terms of weather in recent years! Here are a few pictures from recent walks of man making a mark on nature:

What are your favorite spots to see man's gentle impact on nature?

thanksgiving fraction plate download

I have another download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store (it's free to have an account there and there are over 60k freebies as of this post). This is the preview file to my larger Thanksgiving math activities. You don't have to know fractions to do this but it's a fun introduction for little ones. Cut out the fraction pieces and glue them on to your Thanksgiving plate. Great fine motor practice and a fun way to start thinking about how you want to fill your real plate. They will only be able to fit everything on their plate if their fractions add up to 1!

bark painting

Hurricane Sandy was a disaster for so many people in the northeast US, but we were lucky enough this year to avoid the issues we encountered with last year's storm. We didn't lose power (yay!) and since we had our two giant maple trees removed following last year's storm, there were no branches falling toward my head or through our roof, as they did last year (bigger yay!). Only two fence panels and small branches (<10ft long) fell. During yard cleanup, the kids and I found several large pieces of bark, so I put them on the deck to dry out. We used Q-tips and large brushes to paint:

Our finished pieces.

H painting his space themed bark.

He wanted to add glitter. There is glitter in space. Duh.

Just wish we had more bark to paint!

halloween

Just a quick picture update - Halloween from the back! H wanted to be a shark this year and after seeing this super cute costume idea, I knew buying a costume was not an option! F was a dinosaur, which has now been worn 4 consecutive Halloweens between the 2 of them. =)

Hope you had (or will have, if you are sans power) fun ToTing!

I am so very thankful all of our family and friends are safe after Sandy, and I am keeping those who were not as fortunate in my thoughts. Wishing a speedy recovery to those affected.

tubes

The kids just loved this exhibit at a local children's museum. You put in a play scarf in the opening and it whips around the tubes until the scarf gets shot out at the end of the line. You can change the direction with valves on the structure. Wondering how I can convert the shop-vac to a home version of this. Just had to share because it was so fun! =)

Series of tubes!

felt bats

This is a cute Halloween craft we did last year so I thought I'd share it.

What you need:

• Felt
• Needle and thread (or hot glue gun and glue)
• Straight pins (unless you make a cardboard or paper template)
• Googly eyes
• Ribbon
• Fill/batting 
• Scissors

I made a template and pined it to another piece of felt to cut out the other side.

Start gluing/sewing together both sides (don't forget ribbon for hanging!)

When it's 75% glued, stuff it! This is a great job for little fingers!

Add googly eyes and you're done!

Why not make a friend?! Love bats!

noun game, adjective game

I made a word game for each of the boys today: a pre-reading noun matching game for F, and an adjective game for H. We've played the noun game before but I couldn't find the cards I had made so I made a new sheet:

Feel free to print and add your own in the blank boxes.

This game was very well received! I stuck with mostly cvc words but if you can do more difficult words as well if you are beyond the beginning reading stages.

The game objects

Working out the words

 I made an adjective game for H for reading practice and to reinforce the concept of describing words.

I had him cut out the words, read them, and then find objects in the house that matched. Blank cards are to write in your own adjectives or to have your child come up with some on their own. Active, hands-on learning seems to work really well for my boys - they keep their bodies moving and have fun!